The pill that stops you binge drinking in just a few days

The drug, called naltrexone, has been shown to halve the amount people drink and cut the number of heavy drinking sessions by 70 per cent after 12 weeks.

It is thought to work on brain chemicals, reducing the craving for alcohol and making users feel they have drunk enough.

The new pill helps people to stop binge drinking

Binge-drinking, most common among younger people, is defined as eight or more units of alcohol in one session for a man, and more than six units for a woman.

Studies have shown that a large amount of alcohol over a short period is worse for your health than drinking little and often because it places a bigger strain on the liver.

It's estimated that 23 per cent of men and 9 per cent of women - around six million people in Britain - binge-drink.

Among those aged 16 to 24, up to 36 per cent of men and 27 of women binge at least once a week.

Over the last decade, binge drinking among young British women has increased more than in any other EU country.

Long-term risks include cancer, heart disease and stroke, as well as cirrhosis of the liver.

The death rate due to acute intoxication in the UK has doubled in the past 20 years for both sexes.

Researchers at Yale University have been testing naltrexone as a solution to the binge-drinking problem.

It is already used in the rehabilitation of people who have an addiction, including drugs and alcoholism, and is designed to help them stay drug free by blocking the effects of any drugs they take.

In order to work, addictive drugs stimulate brain receptors and produce a euphoric feeling.

Naltrexone is attracted to the same receptors. Once it has latched on to them, the drugs have no effect.

The pilot study involved people aged 18 to 25 - the participants were not alcoholics as the aim was to reduce alcohol consumption rather than stop it altogether.

During the eight-week study, the 14 men and women had 25mg of naltrexone daily and took a further 25mg - a so-called booster dose - when necessary.

They were also given brief counselling on the dangers of alcohol and how to combat them.

Before the trial, the participants were consuming an average 7.69 drinks a day. After four weeks, intake had dropped to 5.42 a day. Some months later, it had dropped to 3.98.

'Naltrexone appears to be effective by making people less likely to consume a second or third beverage, rather than preventing them from having the first,' says Dr Robert Leeman, who co-ordinated the research.

A larger trial is under way giving participants naltrexone or a placebo.

'While naltrexone blocks the effects of alcohol and heroin, it doesn't seem to treat the two addictions in the same way. For alcohol, it seems to reduce the urge to drink, while for drug addicts, the urge isn't reduced but continued use results in a reduction in the euphoric effect of the drug.'

However, some experts are not convinced by the research.

'This is a heavy-handed approach to binge-drinking in young people and we should be aware of the dangers of medicalising this problem,' says Nick Heather, professor of alcohol and other drug studies at Northumbria University.

'A better approach is to change behaviour by making alcohol less accessible, more expensive and less glamorous.'

Although binge drinking is a health problem at any age, among teenagers it raises particular concerns, with recent research suggesting it could damage memory for years.

It's thought that excessive alcohol interferes with a critical stage in brain development.

Earlier this year, a Northumbria University study found that among those aged 16 to 19, binge drinkers did much worse in memory tests, completing up to a third fewer tasks properly.